When Women Are Seen But Not Heard

A few years ago, a company I worked for made a visible and vocal push to hire more diversely. It was a laudable effort and one I championed wholeheartedly. There was just one problem: I noticed that even though new people were being brought into the business, their voices were not necessarily being heard. Getting into the building, it seemed, was one thing; being part of the conversation was something else entirely. On paper, things looked rosier; in reality, things felt just as stuck as ever.

I thought of this while reviewing new research from Equal Measures 2030 — a nonprofit combining gender data analysis and women’s advocacy. The nonprofit’s latest index, out this week, found that although girls and women’s access to things like education, job opportunities and healthcare has improved, their proximity to power — indeed their influence — has not. 

At the topline level, there is good news: Connectivity (internet use) has improved for women in many countries, opening the door to things like economic advancement. Women and girls have better access to education. Family planning, reproductive care and maternal health are also improving for many women. Rates of adolescent birth and child marriage are moving in the right direction. 

But as always, we’re not there yet. While many lower income countries, including Armenia and Mexico, showed significant gains in these areas, conditions for women in the worst-off countries remain dismal, even those on a slight growth trajectory. Other countries remained stubbornly stalled. And then were the countries that saw declines — most dispiritingly the U.S. (The U.S. was the only country on the list that backslid on abortion laws — a dubious honor indeed. It dropped 15 places to No. 38 on the index.)

Obviously, there are low points, but overall, broadly speaking, globally speaking, women’s access to opportunity has improved.

What hasn’t improved are two other measures, both very worrying: Women’s access to justice and women’s freedom of expression. These two measures backslid in a quarter of the 130 countries examined by the index, and not just in poor countries, either. Australia, Austria, the Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K. all showed declines on these fronts. Overall they dropped by 2.12 and 2.03 points respectively.

Access to justice — meaning a woman’s ability to bring a case, to be treated fairly, without intimidation, and to receive a solution that’s effective in real life, not just on paper — is about allowing her to enforce her legal rights, to protect herself. Meanwhile, freedom of expression — pertaining to a woman’s ability to speak freely, and without fear, on political issues either publicly or privately — is about her ability to be heard. It correlates to whether she is represented in the public sphere. A rollback of freedom of expression is just another way of silencing or restricting women. 

Together, access to justice and freedom of expression “shape whether women can seek legal protection, participate in public debate, influence political decisions, challenge discrimination and hold institutions accountable,” the report notes.

“When these rights weaken, women may have fewer effective routes to challenge discrimination, seek protection or influence the institutions that shape their lives. The result is not simply less voice, but weaker protection for gains made elsewhere,” it continues.

It’s an offensive and insidious irony that just as so many women globally are gaining ground on healthcare, education and technology, they are simultaneously losing ground in exercising their rights, participating politically and speaking openly. 

It’s a stark reminder that even though the door may be cracked opened to women, that doesn’t automatically come with the privilege of voice, power or influence that is afforded to others.